The Mouse-deer Stole Cucumbers

The mouse-deer is a cunning but naughty animal. It likes to eat cucumbers. One day while walking near a village it found a cucumber field with large cucumbers in it, which made its eyes bright and its appetite grew. But the mouse-deer saw the farmer working on the field so it decided to visit the field during the evening.

That evening, the mouse-deer went to the field and feasted upon the cucumbers. It happily ate the large cucumbers in the field. After the mouse-deer felt his stomach full, it left the field feeling satisfied.

In the morning, the farmer was surprised to see his cucumbers were stolen. He was so angry and wanted to find the thief. So, he built a scarecrow
to scare away the thief. He put his clothes and his hat to make it looked like himself more. Then he collected the very sticky sap of a jackfruit tree and applied it on the scarecrow.

Evening came and the mouse-deer went to the field. It was surprised to see that the farmer was still in the field. It waited and waited for the farmer to go, but he did not. Upon another look, it saw that the farmer did not even move. Cautiously, the mouse-deer approached the farmer, studying him carefully. The mouse-deer touched the scarecrow with its right front leg. It stuck. In panic, the mouse-deer tried to push the scarecrow with its left front leg in an attempt to free its right front leg. Now both its front legs stuck. The mouse-deer was trapped. It struggled and struggled all night but to no avail. Feeling hungry and tired, it gave up.

Morning came and the farmer saw that his trap now worked. feeling happy to finally caught the thief, he put the culprit in a cage. Then he told his wife to prepare the sauce of sate dish while he prepared a knife to slaughter the mouse-deer and invited his neighbors to have a feast of mouse-deer sate meat.

Seeing the farmer preparing the knife, the mouse-deer became afraid for it knows that it was about to be slaughtered. At the moment, it saw a dog walked by.

"Hey dog, come here!" called the mouse-deer.

Curiously the dog came over.

"Hi, mouse-deer," said the dog, "what are you doing there in the cage?"

"I am here because I am the farmer's new pet. And to express his happiness of having me as his new pet, the farmer is going to throw a party for me," said the mouse-deer.

"I don't believe you. I've been around this village all my life and never saw the farmer adopting any animals as his pet, let alone throwing a party for it. You're lying," said the dog.

"See for yourself if you don't believe me. The farmer's wife is preparing food for the party right now," said the mouse-deer.

The dog went around the farmer's house and peeked inside the kitchen. There it saw the farmer's wife preparing a large amount of sate sauce. Now the dog believed that the farmer was preparing a party for the mouse-deer.

"Oh, mouse-deer," said the dog when he came back to the cage. "I saw the farmer's wife preparing food. Is it true the farmer is going to throw a party for you?"

"As I already told you," said the mouse-deer proudly.

"Oh, mouse-deer, I'm sorry for not believing you. Please let me come to the party. I've never been in a party all my life. All I ever did was eating leftovers of a party," said the dog sadly.

"Alright," said the mouse-deer, "but you have to accompany me in this cage so I wouldn't be alone inside."

With its snout, the dog pushed the stick which locked the cage door. When the cage door opened and the dog came into the cage, the mouse-deer jumped out and quickly put the stick back on, locking the cage door.

"Sorry, you were right all the time," said the mouse-deer happily. "I was caught for stealing the farmer's cucumbers, and he wanted to slaughter me to be made sate meat. The farmer is preparing a feast because he has caught me successfully. I thank you for freeing me and I would pray for you so that you would not be slaughtered in place of me. Goodbye now."

The mouse-deer then leaped away happily. The farmer went back to the cage to get the mouse-deer, but he found the dog in the cage instead. The farmer took the it out of the cage and kicked and hit the dog angrily. The dog ran away, feeling fortunate that it was not slaughtered by the farmer while holding a grudge against the mouse-deer. But the cunning animal had gone far into the woods and never came back to the village again.

In another version of the story, the dog is actually the farmer's dog. But this is not plausible because if the farmer has a dog, then he would have the dog watch over his cucumber field and the first time the mouse-deer came to steal the cucumber, the dog would have seen it, or at least smell its scent, so it would be hard for the mouse-deer to steal any cucumber. The version in which the dog is only a stray dog is the more plausible story.